Just curious, what does vertical integration have to do with The Expanse?

The entire show is about political tensions that result from expanding corporate dominance and private ownership into industrial heavy mining operations like those out in the Belt, with all the attendant cost-cutting and consequent torture of the peons that that entails. Reminds heavily of stories heard from within Amazon warehouses.

Amazon's push to dominate retail markets via Basics, etc., and the anti-competitive practices he enables, only serves to portend an obvious conclusion that Bezos wants to own not just the marketplace but every component of goods production.

Gotcha. It is also one of my favorite shows(and I am far from a space theme enthusiast), but I think I focused more on the protovirus and what not, I should go back and re-watch it again!